April 05, 2021

Day 131

Toll 351

#FarmersProtest

FCI

What can be more dramatic and ironical for a nation than its government trying to sell or close its institutions and its people fighting to preserve them? Before you come up with some neo-liberal, free market, spiel consider that neither the health sector nor the education sector has benefitted from neo-liberalism. All that has happened in the last 30 years is we have learnt to read English, put our children into private schools, admit ourselves into private hospitals, juggle finances with insurance companies.

India is 94th on the World Hunger Index out of 117 countries. India has 67 per cent people who depend on rations available from the Public Distribution System procured by the Food Corporation of India. In the last 5 years, under this government, the FCI’s total debt has zoomed to Rs 2.65 lakh crore in March 2019, up from Rs 91,409 crore in March 2014 — an increase of nearly three times. By now, even more!

In this period the government has waived off loans worth Rs 8 lakh crore for corporates. Understand the chronology: by changing the procurement rules, the debt-laden FCI, completely dependent on government funding, is being pushed to not buy grains from farmers. This will lead to closure of FCI. This will lead to the collapse of the PDS system. The rations to poor will stop. In 2015 itself, over 2 crore children in the country were malnourished. About 40 per cent children 0-5 years were stunted in their growth. This is structural violence by the government – to make us a sick, weak society.

The Amendment to the Essential Commodities Act which allows one, just one, corporate house to store unlimited quantities of food. Adani already has a capacity to store 8 lakh tonnes and is rapidly building more warehouses. In a few years, the whole nation will depend on Adani for food and struggle with artificially inflated prices.

Today the farmers led by the Samyukt Kisan Morcha are protesting the eventual closure of FCI. The farmers are fighting for the nation’s food security. If you cannot see it, blame your private education, your sold out media but worry very deeply about what will your children eat in a few years. Ask yourselves if the next generation should become slaves to the corporate where they will have no say or if we should we all not fight to preserve democracy – the institutions of the state.